![]() ![]() ![]() "You will never again refer to him as 'Hazara boy' in my presence. Fathers and son Amir Chapter 6, page 46 He walked to me, curled his arm around my neck, and gave my brow a single kiss. "And one more thing, General Sahib," I said. Shoulder Friendship Terms in this set (18) The chill between Baba and me thawed a little. That's what you tell people when they ask." They were all staring at me. That boy sleeping on the couch is Hassan's son. That’s what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley, to Hassan. "You see, General Sahib, my father slept with his servant's wife. In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. "You can tell them – " "It's all right." I turned to the general. I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. What do I tell them?" Soraya dropped her spoon. They will want to know why there is a Hazara boy living with our daughter. "While you're busy knitting sweaters, my dear, I have to deal with the community's perception of our family. The skirting finally came to an end over dinner when the general put down his fork and said, "So, Amir jan, you're going to tell us why you have brought back this boy with you?" "Iqbal jan! What sort of question is that?" Khala Jamila said. As if we were skirting around the edge of what he really wanted to know. (2.23)īut as we spoke, I caught his eyes drifting again and again to Sohrab sleeping on the couch. I had heard some of the kids in the neighborhood yell those names to Hassan. It also said some things I did know, like that people called Hazaras mice-eating, flat-nosed, load-carrying donkeys. The book said a lot of things I didn't know, things my teachers hadn't mentioned. The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi'a. ![]() It said the Hazaras had tried to rise against the Pashtuns in the nineteenth century, but the Pashtuns had "quelled them with unspeakable violence." The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women. Friendship is a major theme in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.The story follows Amir and his interactions with his father (Baba), best friend and servant (Hassan. An entire chapter dedicated to Hassan's people! In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. I blew the dust off it, sneaked it into bed with me that night, and was stunned to find an entire chapter on Hazara history. It was written by an Iranian named Khorami. Then one day, I was in Baba's study, looking through his stuff, when I found one of my mother's old history books. School text books barely mentioned them and referred to their ancestry only in passing. For years, that was all I knew about the Hazaras, that they were Mogul descendants, and that they looked a little like Chinese people. Despite its violent and corrupted past, Hosseini hopes for a redemption for his country someday.They called him "flat-nosed" because of Ali and Hassan's characteristic Hazara Mongoloid features. You have a visa to go to America, to live with me and my wife. That was what I was coming in the bathroom to tell you. When you tell a lie, you steal someones right. Sohrab, I can’t give you your old life back, I wish to God I could. ![]() Hosseini subtly connects these personal quests for redemption to Afghanistan itself. You steal his wifes right to a husband, rob his children of a father. Amir is also able to find a kind of redemption in his bloody fight with Assef (Hassan’s rapist), and his adoption of Sohrab. This ultimately culminates in Amir’s return to Afghanistan and his attempts to save and adopt Hassan’s son Sohrab.Īfter Amir learns of Baba’s betrayal of Ali, Amir realizes that Baba was probably trying to redeem his adultery through his many charitable activities and strong principles in later life. After Hassan’s rape, Amir spends the rest of his life trying to redeem himself for his betrayal of his loyal friend. Quote: I hit him with another pomegranate, in the shoulder this time. Throughout his childhood, Amir’s greatest struggle was to redeem himself to Baba for “killing” his mother during childbirth, and for growing up a disappointing son who was unlike Baba himself. The quest for redemption makes up much of the novel’s plot, and expands as a theme to include both the personal and the political. ![]()
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